Cooking rack-pan combination

ABSTRACT

An improved rack-pan combination is provided which has particular utility in the industrial cooking of food, such as fish. The combination of the invention includes an improved rack which may be nested with other similar racks, and it includes a plurality of impervious pans, which likewise may be nested with other similar pans, the pans being supported in a stacked relationship on the rack and supporting the food being cooked.

United States Patent Wilson 1 51 July 18, 1972 s41 COOKING RACK-PANCOMBINATION 2,762,669 9 1956 Watson ..21 1/133 x 2,928,681 3/1960 Wilson..280/33.99 S m] 2,982,422 5/1961 Asproyerakas ..211/134 [73] Assignee:BannerMetak, Inn, Compton, Calif. 3,111,915 11/1963 l/162 X 3,152,69810/1964 Maddox..... ...211/162 X 3,462,166 8/1969 Fuhrmann ..280/33.99 5I21 1 Appl, No: 611.1150 3,527,360 9/1970 Thielking ..211/126 X ApplluumPrimary Examiner-Walter A. Scheel 163] Continuation-impart of Ser. No.853,380, Aug. 27, swam Examinermhuro'ncndemn 1969' abandoned,Anorney-Jessup and Beecher [52] 11.8. C1 ..99/347, 99/446, 99/448ABSTRACT An improved rack-Pa combination is provided which has I 99 375107 G 56 particular utility in the 1ndustnal cooking of food, such asfish. A 6 2| A The combination of the invention includes an improvedrack E 6 286/33 6 which may be nested with other similar racks, and itincludes a plurality of impervious pans, which likewise may be nested IC I with other similar pans, the pans being supported in a stacked [56]R relationship on the rack and supporting the food being UNITED STATESPATENTS cooked- 1,769,048 7/1930 Anetsberger et al ..126/281 4 China, 5lh'lwing Figures Patented July 18, 1972 7b era 0/ 7/ee A er/e/ 46k! 3Sheets-Sheet :3

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Patented July 18, 1972 3 Shea ts-Sheet 5 MAM,

AI'IORAM COOKING RACK-PAN COMBINATION This application is acontinuation-in-part of copending application Ser. No. 853,380 filedAug. 27, I969, now abandoned in the name of the present inventor.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The rack-pan combination of the presentinvention is intended primarily to be used in the tuna fish industry.Tuna must be pre-cooked before it is canned, and the pre-cooking isusually carried out in a pressure chamber using steam heat. The steamheat has the double effect of cooking the fish, and also of causing fishoils to be produced. The fish oils are used, for example, in themanufacture of vitamin pills, and also in the paint industry. After thetuna has been cooked, it is usual in the canning process for the skin,dark meat, bones and white meat to be hand separated.

In the past, it has been the usual practice to cook the tunaindustrially in wire baskets which are supported on large racks, thebasket and rack combinations being placed into the cooking ovens. Thelarger canneries, for example, have many thousands of such prior artrack and basket combinations in use.

However, the usual prior art rack and basket combination of the typedescribed above, are wasteful of space, and also are most difficult toclean. In addition, the use of baskets to support the fish whilecooking, has been found to cause a substantial portion of the fish toadhere to the wires of the baskets and to be lost during the subsequentseparation process.

The rack-pan combination of the present invention is constructed so thatthe racks, as mentioned above, may be nested into one another when notin use, so as to conserve floor space in the cannery. In addition, thepans are of an impervious construction, rather than being configured aswire-formed baskets, and they may be made, for example, of stainlesssteel sheet metal. Release agents, such as palm oil and lecithin, may beused to prevent any sticking of the fish to the surface of the pan. Thepans are constructed so that they may also be nested into one anotherwhen not in use.

The pans to be described have a crown shaped bottom which definestroughs or gutters at the sides thereof. These troughs gather the fishoils which are produced during the cooking process. The pans aresupported within the rack with a slight inclination, so that the fishoils collected in the troughs at each side of the bottom of each pandrains out one end of the pans. The pans are supported so that the fishoils draining out the ends of each pan falls to the bottom of the rackto be collected, and does not drain through the lower pans, as is thecase with the prior art baskets. This action has been found to render agreater quantity of oil than the usual prior art baskets, and also torender a cleaner and higher quality end product.

It has been found that the impervious stainless steel metal pans provideadequate heat circulation to the fish being cooked therein, and alsoprovide an adequate means of draining off the oils produced during thecooking process. The use of such pans obviates the prior art practice inthe fish industry to use wire baskets, these being thought necessary asthe only way to obtain the prior heat circulation to the fish and at thesame time to be capable of draining off the oils rendered during thecooking operation. The use of impervious pans, instead of wire baskets,eliminates the wafile" effect on the fish surface produced by the priorart baskets, and which resulted in the loss of as much as 7 percent ofthe meat during the canning process.

As will be described, the impervious pans are slidably supported onU-shaped support rails on the rack, the rails being supported on uprightposts in a spaced generally horizontal relationship. In the embodimentto be described, the upper edges of the pans are rolled over slidably toengage the corresponding rails, and completely cover the rails. Thisprevents the fish in the individual pans from actually coming in contactwith the rails or any other portion of the rack itself, so that cleaningof the rack is made easier and the need for cleaning the rack is lessfrequent than in the usual prior art asembly.

BRIEF osscmmou or THE DRAWINGS FIG. I is a perspective rendition of oneembodiment of the improved rack and pan combination of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a top plan view showing the manner in which a plurality ofrack assemblies, each incorporating the concepts of the invention, maybe nested into one another to conserve space;

FIG. 3 is a top perspective view of one of the pans used in the rack andpan combination of the invention;

FIG. 4 is a bottom perspective view of a pan like FIG. 3 but modified toprovide basting of the fish being cooked; and

FIG. 5 is a pan representing yet another modification and also providingbasting.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE ILLUSTRATED EMBODIMENT The improved rack andpan assembly shown in FIG. 1, for example, includes a lower wheeledcarriage which is made up of a pair of side bars 10 and 12, and a rearinterconnecting crossbar I4, and an intermediate interconnectingcrossbar 16. The lower carriage is supported on casters 1!, for example,to permit the rack to be moved freely from place to place. The lowercarriage is such that the side bars 10 and I2 are inclined outwardlytowards the front of the rack so as to permit other like racksconveniently to be nested against the rack of FIG. I, as best shown inFIG. 3.

A first pair of upright support posts 20, 21 is supported on a pair ofangles 22, 24 which, in turn, are affixed to the side bar I2. A secondpair of upright posts 26, 27 is supported on similar angle members 28and 30 which are affixed to the sie bar 10 of the wheeled carriage. Therack also includes a further pair of rear upright support posts 32, 33positioned between the corresponding posts 21 and 27 on the crossbar l4,and a common forward post 34 positioned between the posts 21 and 27.

A first plurality of U-shaped support rails 40 are supported by theposts 20, 21, 32, 33 and 34. These U-shaped rails have the illustratedconfiguration, and they are affixed to their supporting posts to bedisposed in essentially horizontal planes one above the other. However,each of the rails is inclined slightly to the horizontal, so that fishoil collected in the pans supported thereby may be drained to one end ofthe pan.

A second plurality of U-shaped rails 40 is supported in like spaced andparallel horizontal planes by the posts 33, 34, 26 and 27. The U-shapedrails of the second plurality are supported adjacent the U-shaped railsof the first plurality, and it will be observed that the adjacent sidesof each corresponding pair of rails in the two pluralities may be madeintegral, at the point at which the rails are affixed, for example, tothe common post 34.

The U-shaped rails 40 define a closed back for the rack, and a openfront. The inclination of the individual rails 40 for drainage purposes,as explained above, also permits similar rack assemblies to be nestedwith a one another in the manner shown in FIG. 2, with the rails of eachsuccessive rack assembly extending under the rails of the rack assemblyin front of it. A plurality of pans, such as the pan 50 of FIGS. 1 and3, may be supported, as shelves, on the U-shaped rails 40 in a stackedrelationship, to be individually insertable and removable from the frontof the rack.

The pans 50 are impervious as mentioned above, and may be constructed ofsheet metal stainless steel. Each pan 50 may have the configurationshown in FIGS. 1 and 3 to have open ends, and a crown shaped bottom. Thebottom defines troughs at each side thereof which permit oils from thefish to be drained out the open end of the pan, when it is supportedwith a slight inclination in the rack. The side edges of the pans have arolled over shape, as shown, so as to permit the pans slidably to besupported on the corresponding rails 40. It will be observed in FIG. Ithat when a pan 50 is supported on a pair of rails 40, the sides of thepan completely cover the corresponding rail, so that the fish itselfdoes not come in contact with the rack which, as mentioned above,facilitates the cleaning process.

The pans themselves are constructed so that when not in use, they mayconveniently be nested into one another so that they and the racksoccupy a minimum of floor space. It will be appreciated that the pans50, supported in a slightly inclined manner one on top of the other inthe rack of FIG. 1, cause oils rendered during the cooking process anddrained from the individual pans to flow out the ends of the pans. Theoil is then collected by any appropriate means at the bottom of the rackassembly, and the oil from an upper pan does not flow through the lowerpans, as is the case with the prior art cooking baskets, so that acleaner and higher quality oil product is obtained.

The 500 in FIG. 4 is similar to the pan 50 of FIG. 3, except that it hasa multiplicity of protruberances 52 formed on its bottom surface. Theprotruberances may be formed, for example, by a dimpling operation onthe opposite side of the bottom of the pan.

The protruberances 52 cause the steam which is used during the cookingoperation to condense and form drops which fall on the contents of thelower pan and which baste the contents with pure distilled water duringthe cooking process.

A similar effect is achieved by the pan 50b in FIG. 5. However, thelatter pan has its bottom surface chemically etched, or otherwisetreated, to provide a quilted pattern of dull areas 54 and bright areas56.

The pans 50b may be supported in the rack of FIG. I in a slightlyinclined position, so that the steam condensing on the underside of thepan 50b will form droplets at each apex in the bright regions. Thedroplets will drop on the contents of the lower pan to perform theaforesaid basting action.

It will be appreciated that other configurations of the bottom surfacesof the pans are possible to condense the steam and cause droplets forthe aforesaid basting action.

Therefore, while particular embodiments have been shown and describedmodifications may be made, and it is intended to cover suchmodifications as come within the spirit and scope of the invention.

What is claimed is:

l. A rack and pan combination including: a plurality of elongatedupright post members; a plurality of pairs of support rails aifixed tosaid upright post members and normally disposed in spaced and parallelhorizontal planes one above the other, said support rails defining anopen front for the rack; and a plurality of impervious metallic pansslidably supported on respective pairs of said rails, and slidable inand out of said rack from the open front thereof, said pans each havinga bottom surface configured to form droplets of condensed steam so as tobaste the contents of the next lower pan.

2. The combination defined in claim 1, in which said pans each has anopen end, and each has a crown-shaped bottom defining troughs at eachside of said bottom for draining liquids towards said open end.

3. The combination defined in claim I, in which said bottom surface isconfigured into a multiplicity of protuberances.

4. The combination defined in claim 1, in which said pan each has abottom surface formed in a quilted pattern of bright and dull areas toform droplets of condensed steam so as to baste the contents of the nextlower pan.

1. A rack and pan combination including: a plurality of elongatedupright post members; a plurality of pairs of support rails affixed tosaid upright post members and normally disposed in spaced and parallelhorizontal planes one above the other, said supPort rails defining anopen front for the rack; and a plurality of impervious metallic pansslidably supported on respective pairs of said rails, and slidable inand out of said rack from the open front thereof, said pans each havinga bottom surface configured to form droplets of condensed steam so as tobaste the contents of the next lower pan.
 2. The combination defined inclaim 1, in which said pans each has an open end, and each has acrown-shaped bottom defining troughs at each side of said bottom fordraining liquids towards said open end.
 3. The combination defined inclaim 1, in which said bottom surface is configured into a multiplicityof protuberances.
 4. The combination defined in claim 1, in which saidpan each has a bottom surface formed in a quilted pattern of bright anddull areas to form droplets of condensed steam so as to baste thecontents of the next lower pan.